


armistice

by greywardenblue



Series: best enemies triad [2]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Other, after Fugitive of the Judoon, it's what the title says people, please let them be friends/lovers again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:54:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22913560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greywardenblue/pseuds/greywardenblue
Summary: The Doctor thought she knew her past, but after a run-in with the Judoon and someone she never expected, she's not so sure anymore. She'd better ask someone who's always been there.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Series: best enemies triad [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630456
Comments: 21
Kudos: 176





	armistice

**Author's Note:**

> I remember most fondly those lifetimes where we get to grow up together,  
> when you share your secrets and sorrows and hiding places with me.  
> \- 25 Lives by Tongari

He was sitting on the hill overlooking his father’s estate, or what remained of it. He must have heard her ship landing, but he didn’t turn around.

“You come here often?” the Doctor asked.

“Fuck off,” the Master said.

“Oh, no.” She laughed bitterly as she moved to sat beside him. “You dragged me into this, now you’re stuck with me.”

He finally glanced towards her. “You’re taking this well.”

The Doctor could feel his mind reaching out to hers, trying to find out what she was hiding. She shut the metaphorical door in his face and leaned against it.

“I’m furious with you. I could strangle you with my bare hands.” And that was only part of it. She thought of Missy, of kissing her in the graveyard, of everything that came after. _Stand with me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted_. The pain squeezed at her hearts again and she had to force herself to continue. “But you’re my oldest friend, and something came up that I need to run by you.”

That got his attention. “What is it?”

She took a deep breath. “There was a woman…” Once she started, the words kept stumbling out. She told him about the Judoon and about Ruth and her companion and the TARDIS that looked so familiar, inside and out. “She said she was the Doctor. She said she was _me_.”

She half-expected him to say he knew about it, he arranged it even - but he seemed lost in thought. “Did you ask her about her last regeneration?”

“I…” The Doctor paused. “Well, no.”

The Master looked at her in surprise. “No? What did you do, then?”

“We…” It almost hurt to say. “We insulted each other’s clothes, I suppose? Look, there wasn’t that much time. Once the Judoon and that other Gallifreyan found us…”

He was laughing now, which was entirely inappropriate.

“Hey! Stop that! I just came here to ask you if you know anything about her, if you’ve ever met her, or if you remember... “ She thought she knew her past, but she kept getting proven wrong. “You’re the one who knows me the best,” she said desperately.

The Master shook his head, still trying to hold back his chuckle. “No, I don’t know anything about your mystery incarnation slash con artist pretending to be you.”

“She isn’t _pretending_ to be me. I scanned her. My sonic says she’s the same person as me. The Judoon scanned us, too. We were both matches. If she’s somehow my past, if I was made to forget…”

“What would that make you?” he asked. “The fifteenth.”

“Something like that. But that can’t be possible!” She threw her hands in the air. “Even if I accept that I had an entire regeneration I don’t remember, that would have made the one with Saxon my twelfth. I got my new regeneration cycle after the next one, but if he was the thirteenth, he shouldn’t have existed in the first place.”

“Unless…” He leaned in closer and tapped her nose. She was so surprised that she let him. “Unless the whole twelve regenerations thing is a lie they made up to keep us in line, like everything else.”

The Doctor frowned. “You’re being cryptic again. And also, that makes no sense.”

The Master shrugged. “Ever seen Firebringer by Starkid? It’s this musical where the old leader of the tribe has to pass on the mantle to a younger woman and she tells her how she made up their entire belief system. It’s pretty funny, really.” He was chuckling again, and she felt the anger rise in her.

“Are you _serious_ right now?” She pushed herself up from the ground and started pacing. “I’m having an entire crisis here, and you are making jokes about some musical! Something is coming for me, I know it, and I…” The Doctor spun around again and took a deep breath, like she was bracing herself for what came next. “I need my friend.”

The declaration hung in the silence between them. The Master rose to get up and opened his mouth to answer, but she fell to her knees before him without prompting.

“If I’m going to face this, then I can’t have you against me, too,” she said quickly, rushing to get the words out before he interrupted. This was what he had wanted, wasn’t it? The Doctor on her knees, begging for him. And yet, now she was doing it, he turned his face away. “I have Ryan, and Yaz, and Graham, but I’m terrified they’ll get hurt, and they don’t have the context to understand what’s happening. Jack is there, but he hasn’t met the early ones of me. You’re the only one who knows me enough, knows the Time Lords enough to do this with me. I need you to stand by me, even if it’s temporary. Please, Master…”

“Would you get up already?” he snapped, and she shut up. “You’re being pathetic.”

She stood up without a word and straightened her back. She would not speak and embarrass herself further; she waited for his judgment to come.

“I’m hungry,” he said finally. She frowned in confusion and started to answer, but he raised a hand to stop her. “So here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to have dinner, and we’re going to talk about this after. And you’re going to wear a dress, because it is an elegant place and I am a long-time member with a reputation to keep, and I’m not having you there to embarrass me.”

The Doctor rolled her eyes, but a smile was tugging at the corner of her lips.

“And I’m going to do your makeup,” the Master continued. “And maybe your nails. And your _hair_. Do you even brush it? You know that is the bare minimum, right?”

“Sometimes,” she confessed. “When the brush jumps into my hand.”

He sighed. “What is the point of being a woman for the first time if you’re just going to keep dressing the same way you always do? Where’s your sense of adventure?”

The Doctor frowned and crossed her arms. “Oi! I’m having plenty of adventures. I wear a rainbow now!”

“If you say so.” The Master shook his head. “Either way, that is my condition. It will be just like when we watched Hamilton together.” He smirked a little at that, and she knew exactly what he was thinking: he was reminding her of the time when he was fooling her so easily.

She rolled her eyes. “I knew it was you.”

His smile froze. “What?”

The Doctor suddenly regretted making that confession, but it was too late to take it back. “That was only a few days ago for me.”

His face was still, and she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She prodded gently at his mind, but this time, it was him who shut her out. “You went back in time.”

She shrugged. “I remembered that there was a meeting we agreed on that I didn’t go to, and, well… it just seemed rude to stand you up.”

He laughed again, but this time it was shakier than before. His hand brushed over his chest pocket, and she stilled, expecting him to pull out a weapon - but he put his hand down right after. “Not any ruder than stranding me in another dimension.”

“... Point taken.”

There was a moment of silence, then he sighed, and held his arm out. She smiled. This time, she knew what to do with the gesture.

"So when you almost kissed me," he asked in a low voice as she took his arm. "You knew it was me all along?"

She swallowed hard, trying to appear unaffected. "Who said I was going to kiss you?"

The Master laughed and pulled her closer, and the two of them walked off together. It seemed like somewhere in the universe, miracles still existed.


End file.
